The depth chart above is not intended as a forecast of who will play for Ireland in the 2027 world cup but rather give a rough snapshot of current pecking orders in every position based on Ireland squad and training call ups. World cup winning squads tend to have at least one world class player for every position and at least two other credible back-ups to cover for injuries and squad rotation. Previous Ireland World Cup squads have suffered from a lack of depth and Andy Farrell has tried to mitigate this.

The Irish first team is aging, with a current average age of 30, and some may no longer be at their peak in 2027. Compared to the top nations Ireland lack sufficient players of outstanding power, pace, and size and have sought to mitigate this by better teamwork based on most of the team coming from one provincial team. However, that advantage is eroded as the World Cup progresses and all the teams and coaches spend a lot of time together. We need another few players to break through into world class to be in with a chance of winning.

Having reviewed the prospects for Connacht, Ulster, Munster, and Leinster  in the forthcoming season in previous posts here, the time has now come to turn our attention to the prospects for the Irish senior men’s team as a whole. Broadly, my conclusions on the four provinces can be summarised as follows:

Connacht

Stuart Lancaster has Connacht playing an attractive brand of rugby and has developed some exciting new talent epitomised by the Ireland debuts for Seán Jansen, Billy Bohan, and Sam Illio at the end of last season.

Jansen has added to our already considerable resources at No. 8. Bohan’s rise as a 20 year old loose head has been phenomenal and helped plug a gap left by injuries to our top three looseheads, Porter, McCarthy, and Boyle. Sam Illo had two starts in his previous four seasons at Connacht and hadn’t always been impressive when he came off the bench. Under Lancaster, he became Connacht’s starting tight head, overtaking Bealham, and forcing Aungier to seek refuge in Munster.

Lancaster’s recruitment of Frawley and Connors from Leinster should see them get increased gametime in their preferred positions and deepen our depth chart at 10 and 7. The IRFU’s belated investment in Connacht is paying off handsomely.

Ulster

Richie Murphy has reversed a long term decline in Ulster’s fortunes which had reached its nadir with no Ulster representatives in some Ireland matchday squads. This rose to eight players in the matchday squad against Japan, including a debut for the exciting Bryn Ward, and would have been nine had Baloucoune been fit. Stuart McCloskey became an overnight Ireland success story at 33!

Ulster lacked the strength in depth to challenge on two fronts towards the latter end of the season and Murphy has moved to strengthen their depth in the pack and in the halfbacks with the recruitment of Eduardo Bello, Eli Snyman, Mathew Devine and Jamie Benson.

Unfortunately, the first two players are non-Ireland eligible. Ulster don’t yet have a wide enough player base and elite player development pathway to be more self-sufficient, but hopefully the appointment of Joe Schmidt to address that issue will lead to more native Ulster and Ireland players in the Ulster first team squad in the longer term.

Munster

Unfortunately, there is little sign of Munster’s long term decline since their European Cup successes in 2006 and 2008, and URC wins in 2011 and 2023 will be reversed in 2026/7. Poor management, coaching upheavals, and a lack of quality player development and recruitment have reduced Munster to mid-table URC mediocrity and outsiders for the European Cup.

Half the first team weren’t developed by Munster and their days of recruiting world class talent are over. Their glory days of developing outstanding indigenous forward talent are but a distant memory. Tadhg Beirne and Jack Crowley are their only contenders for the Ireland first XV and the IRFU really need to take some urgent action to improve their return on the considerable investment they have put into Munster over the years. Consultant reports into future governance telling senior managers how to manage won’t cut it.

Leinster

If anything, the situation at Leinster is even worse. Their aging team was still able to win the URC but their days of reaching and being unfortunate losers in tight Champion’s Cup finals appear to be over. They are losing six test players for the 2026/7 season with no new recruitment of outstanding test talent.

Leinster’s finances appear to be in trouble due to the increased costs of developing the RDS, renting the Aviva and Croke Park stadiums, making an increased contribution to the costs of central contracts, and reduced gate receipts due to average home attendances declining from 30,000 to 23,000 last season.

They will be starting the new season with two debutant tightheads, Niall Smyth and academy player Andrew Sparrow, against world class Springbok props in Johannesburg and Durban. Expect another humiliating and debilitating start to their season.

Ireland

Ireland peaked at no. 1 in the world rankings in 2022 and 2023 and have gradually slid down the rankings to no. 3 now, but more realistically 4 or 5 based on current form. This was achieved with a team overwhelmingly based on an extraordinary generation of talent which had emerged through the Leinster academy, but which is now aging and not being sufficiently renewed. That well appears to have run dry.

There has been a welcome rebalancing of the national squad with 4 Connacht players, Darragh Murray, Seán Jansen, Billy Bohan, and Sam Illo, and two Ulster players, Bryn Ward and Nathan Doak, making their debut in 2026. However, a more worrying sign is that only one Munster Player, Edwin Edogbo, and no players from Leinster made their Ireland debuts in 2026.

The last outstanding young Ireland first XV player to emerge was Joe McCarthy in 2022. We need a lot more of those to have a chance of winning the World Cup!

But the picture emerging from our four provincial academies is not promising. Only a total of 15 players graduated from academy to senior contracts this season – not enough to fill the gaps left by a total of 42 players who have left their respective provinces. A further 20 players were recruited from other clubs resulting in a net loss of 7 senior professional contracts, from 175 to 168.

There is something wrong with our elite player development pathways when over half the available vacant positions are filled from outside clubs, and some positions are not filled at all. The Leinster Academy produced 8 senior players in 2025 but only three in 2026 and they haven’t even announced any new intake into their academy for 2026/7.

Whereas in the past the provinces imported some world class players who improved their teams as a whole, financial, and other constraints mean the focus now is on recruiting journeymen pros to provide temporary plugs for obvious gaps in squad depth. The longer this goes on, the weaker the provinces and potentially the national side become.

Ireland should still be good enough to make their usual World Cup ceiling of the quarterfinal. Their main obstacle will be an improving Scotland side, but Ireland have managed to maintain something of an Indian sign over them, with their longest ever winning streak of 12 matches since 2018.

If we can beat Scotland, Argentina in the quarterfinal and Australia or England in the Semi-final are our most likely opponents after that. Ireland are remarkably fortunate to be likely to avoid the top three sides South Africa, New Zealand and France until the final.

The question is: will an aging, largely Leinster based team, last that long? We have an unprecedented opportunity to make it all the way to the final. The pity of it that a declining Ireland team may not be able to take advantage of that opportunity. Without more of our younger players reaching world class and our clubs improving their development of emerging talent, Ireland are unlikely to be able to maintain a top three ranking for much longer, never mind breach our World Cup quarterfinal ceiling.

But that requires some visionary thinking and ruthless decision making by the IRFU hierarchy: Sack the senior administrative managers who haven’t delivered a return on the IRFU’s investment for a long time, stop defunding the Leinster team and academy, improve the elite player development by the other academies, bring back the 7’s programme to improve the supply of pacy players (who seem to be in abundance in the GAA these days) and ensure the provinces give game time to emerging talent rather than recruiting more journeymen pros from outside who don’t make a lasting contribution to improving our teams as a whole.

But will the IRFU have the balls to make those tough decisions?